{"id":171057,"date":"2025-09-30T13:44:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T19:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/?p=171057"},"modified":"2025-10-02T16:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T22:21:11","slug":"semiconductors-for-solar-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/industrial-transformation\/semiconductors-for-solar-cells\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Solar Cells Be More Efficient? Researchers Study the Performance of New Semiconductors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Solar panels<\/a> offer a low-cost alternative for generating energy at home<\/a>, but could these photovoltaic technologies become even more efficient? These devices convert sunlight into electricity using semiconductor materials<\/a>, but their performance is capped at around 33%<\/strong>. In other words, only about a third of solar radiation is actually converted into usable electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To address this limitation, researchers from Tecnol\u00f3gico de Monterrey and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/a> (MIT) have teamed up in a scientific collaboration<\/a> to explore new materials that could help these technologies break through that efficiency barrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, the photovoltaic industry relies on semiconductors like perovskite, silicon, cadmium telluride, and germanium-based compounds. These materials are favored for their ideal optical properties<\/strong> and, in some cases, because they are abundant and low-cost<\/strong>, explains Carolina Orona<\/a>, a researcher at the Institute of Advanced Materials and Sustainable Manufacturing<\/a>. However, beyond falling short of peak efficiency, these materials are not particularly stable and, in some cases, may even pose environmental toxicity risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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